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3.58 AVERAGE
3.58 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Child abuse
Minor: Homophobia, Rape, Suicide
For a horror book about a notorious cult, this was awfully boring... The end picked up steam which was good but overall it was quite dense. I felt like prior to the 70% mark there was really only a handful of suspenseful/spooky scenes, so it was a bit of a let down based on reviews.
2.5 rounded down. I need to not take recs from booktok ever again because holy shit.
I am a very firm believer in the concept of "less is more," particularly where it relates to fiction and particularly particularly where it relates to horror fiction. I think it's basically impossible to be scary when you're doing it over 500 pages; I'm sure someone could prove me wrong but this book certainly doesn't. The actual bones of the story were interesting to me, but like did anyone edit this? The manner in which information is revealed is a bit wonky, mostly because it exists in infodumps from various involved characters. Even though I found these sections very interesting generally, I question the technical utility of this method. Also, Nevill does a lot of phonetic dialogue, which has been a bane of my existence since I was like 12 because it's rarely done well. I can't speak to the correctness with which he writes British dialogue, but almost every American character in this novel speaks with a pronounced Southern accent and it's grating every single time.
So much of this book is just painstaking descriptions of various locations. Like every location gets pages of description and it just was not necessary. I do not need to know exactly what a character's fucking kitchen looks like down to the moulding, I just need the general impression of the place. Detail is not scary, it's tedious. I think you could cut half this book if you properly edited these sections specifically.
Lastly, whenever Nevill digresses from the actual story to wax poetic about the nature of fame, religion, narcisism, humanity, or whatever he says absolutely nothing of value. He compares things that are not materially similar and he draws conclusions that are just misanthropic middle-aged white guy shit. Like I could just go talk to my dad about this stuff and it would maybe be more insightful, which is saying a lot! I was initially very forgiving about this because I just assumed it was part of the 3rd person limited and it was more Kyle's perspective, but the author has other characters say exactly the same borderline reddit atheist nonsense. Is there some kind of bonus authors get when they clumsily discuss the Holodomor with zero reason or like is that just something these guys do for fun?
I am a very firm believer in the concept of "less is more," particularly where it relates to fiction and particularly particularly where it relates to horror fiction. I think it's basically impossible to be scary when you're doing it over 500 pages; I'm sure someone could prove me wrong but this book certainly doesn't. The actual bones of the story were interesting to me, but like did anyone edit this? The manner in which information is revealed is a bit wonky, mostly because it exists in infodumps from various involved characters. Even though I found these sections very interesting generally, I question the technical utility of this method. Also, Nevill does a lot of phonetic dialogue, which has been a bane of my existence since I was like 12 because it's rarely done well. I can't speak to the correctness with which he writes British dialogue, but almost every American character in this novel speaks with a pronounced Southern accent and it's grating every single time.
So much of this book is just painstaking descriptions of various locations. Like every location gets pages of description and it just was not necessary. I do not need to know exactly what a character's fucking kitchen looks like down to the moulding, I just need the general impression of the place. Detail is not scary, it's tedious. I think you could cut half this book if you properly edited these sections specifically.
Lastly, whenever Nevill digresses from the actual story to wax poetic about the nature of fame, religion, narcisism, humanity, or whatever he says absolutely nothing of value. He compares things that are not materially similar and he draws conclusions that are just misanthropic middle-aged white guy shit. Like I could just go talk to my dad about this stuff and it would maybe be more insightful, which is saying a lot! I was initially very forgiving about this because I just assumed it was part of the 3rd person limited and it was more Kyle's perspective, but the author has other characters say exactly the same borderline reddit atheist nonsense. Is there some kind of bonus authors get when they clumsily discuss the Holodomor with zero reason or like is that just something these guys do for fun?
Spoiler
I think it's extremely telling that I can pinpoint the exact moment I completely lost interest in this book and it's when I found out Kyle's buddy Dan was okay. For the record, loved Dan.
I don’t scare easily at all, but this was legitimately terrifying. Probably one of my favourite horror novels ever.
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
medium-paced
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I had put this one to the back of my Nevill pile for a while with it possibly being his largest book. I had heard a good number of people say they choose it as their favourite of his books and so it did have a level of expectation built up around it, also given that I have been very impressed by his previous books I have read so far.
I style of this story is more mainstream and easier to read, more modern and similar to work of say Koontz or King whereas some of the other books from Nevill have a much older prose style, more like Machen, Lovecraft and others from a century back or more. So this one is easier to read but a much longer story to get through.
As ever we are given a handful of characters and a lead who seem very believable-desperate, regular, caught or lured into some chilling journey. Following the low-budget film production of Kyle from country to country, it has a very Blair Witch vibe. This book actually does not have too much horrific terror imagery after the start until near the very end, with only a few moments which do still make the reader shift uneasily as they turn the pages. So much of what we read is about the mysterious cult Kyle is making the documentary about and how the followers have die or disappeared over the decades and more.
This may not be the most gothic or intense book from Nevill, but it is still a solid entertaining and satisfying tale.
I style of this story is more mainstream and easier to read, more modern and similar to work of say Koontz or King whereas some of the other books from Nevill have a much older prose style, more like Machen, Lovecraft and others from a century back or more. So this one is easier to read but a much longer story to get through.
As ever we are given a handful of characters and a lead who seem very believable-desperate, regular, caught or lured into some chilling journey. Following the low-budget film production of Kyle from country to country, it has a very Blair Witch vibe. This book actually does not have too much horrific terror imagery after the start until near the very end, with only a few moments which do still make the reader shift uneasily as they turn the pages. So much of what we read is about the mysterious cult Kyle is making the documentary about and how the followers have die or disappeared over the decades and more.
This may not be the most gothic or intense book from Nevill, but it is still a solid entertaining and satisfying tale.